Flipkart India gets legal notice from vendor over non payment of dues

MarcoWagon Retail (MRPL), a vendor of Flipkart has sent a legal notice to the e-commerce giant’s B2B arm, Flipkart India for alleged non-payment of dues and damages amounting to about Rs 20 crore, the Times of India reported today. The move is the latest in a series of allegations and counter allegations over the alleged sales of counterfeit products on Flipkart.

In December last year, US sports-wear brand Skechers had filed a case in the Delhi High Court against Flipkart and four of its vendors including, Retail Net, Tech Connect, Unichem Logistics and Marco Wagon for selling counterfeit Skechers products in India. Following that, the shoe maker, with the help of court-appointed local commissioners, raided seven warehouses in Delhi and Ahmedabad to recover around 15,000 pairs of counterfeit shoes.

Subsequently, Flipkart filed a police case against one of its own employees and MRPL for multiple offences including cheating, fraud, forgery, and breach of trust. Flipkart alleged that MRPL and one of its employees who was handling the said vendor imported cheap counterfeit products and guised them as genuine products. However, an MRPL spokesperson not only denied all charges, but accused Flipkart of having directed their company to import the said counterfeit goods for a fixed margin, despite Flipkart having an agreement with Skechers South Asia for imports.

“Their multiple teams have worked on this and even visited the factory in China. How can they blame me to be a fraud in this case? I have all legal contracts on which Flipkart has indemnified us from any IPR claims,” the spokesperson added. MarcoWagon in its notice said, it was asked by Flipkart to procure the shoes from China, as the dealing would allow it to sell Skechers products at much higher discount on the online marketplace due to higher margins, the TOI report said.

Today, however, Flipkart denied the acquisition with a spokesperson commenting, “All allegations made by Marco Wagon are incorrect. We have already initiated appropriate legal proceedings, including criminal action against Macro Wagon and the matter is subjudice.”